Weapons scanners officially approved for Prince William County schools

Weapons scanners are officially on their way to Prince William County Schools.

Following months of build-up from school division officials and public outreach, the county’s School Board voted unanimously Wednesday to approve the lease of 81 Evolv weapons detection scanners for use of the division’s middle and high schools.

The four-year lease will cost the division $10.7 million, with an additional estimated $725,000 annually in stipends for school staff to man the “security lanes.”

“Nothing is going to stop everything, but I do believe that this is a critical next step for us,” Superintendent LaTanya McDade said Wednesday night.

Board members spoke at length Wednesday about how the scanners wouldn’t be perfect solutions to all the security challenges facing division schools. But, they said, they would bring an added layer of protection and deterrence against anyone trying to bring a weapon into buildings.

As of November, police had recovered five guns and four knives from school grounds. During the 2021-22 school year, 25 weapons and nine guns were recovered on school grounds. Prince William County Schools operates 94 schools with over 90,000 students.

Board members also described being left with difficult choices given the constant drumbeat of news about violence in American schools. Board Chair Babur Lateef blamed school violence on drug usage and dealing, bullying, insufficient mental health resources and the availability of guns, saying society had left the burden of dealing with those problems on schools.

“Society has failed in managing each of these things,” he said Wednesday. “We have failed in the war on drugs … we have failed in addressing adequate mental health facilities for our children, our students and for our loved ones. We have failed at providing appropriate rehabilitation for people who are on drugs, including young people. We have failed at keeping weapons that are so prevalent in our society, out of our schools. It is a series of failures that society has had, and it has been dumped on the schools around the country to solve them."

The scanners are intended to be a technological and logistical upgrade from classic metal detectors. Evolv, the Massachusetts-based company behind the technology, say they’re supposed to detect knives, guns and explosives from on anyone passing through without forcing people to empty their pockets or opening their bags. However, many stadiums and museums that use the scanners do require guests to do one or both of those things.

There has also been some criticism of the system’s ability to detect knives. A company representative told InsideNoVa in February that the system can be set anywhere on a sensitivity scale. On higher sensitivity settings, the system is more likely to detect knives, but it’s also more likely to create false alerts.

According to Vernon Bock, the division’s chief operating officer, McDade initially approached the facilities and risk management departments about beefing up security at school entrances. Bock told InsideNoVa in February that the division initially considered three systems before determining Evolv was the best option. A group of division officials traveled to Charlotte, North Carolina, last year to see the systems in operation in Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, where gun recoveries have reportedly fallen dramatically since the installation of the lanes.

The division’s plan is to start rolling out the scanners shortly after the start of the 2023-24 school year to avoid adding to first-days-of-school confusion. Scanners will eventually cover three entry points at every high school and two at middle schools. Each middle and high school will also get one outdoor unit.

“I’m disappointed that we have arrived at this point, but we are here now and this is what we are going to do,” Lateef said.